At Kærupvej 71 in Kærup, Tømmerby Kirke stands high and open on Hannæs, between the Limfjord and the North Sea. The parish’s visitor information describes the church as open on weekdays but does not specify opening hours. The most striking feature is the Romanesque carved stones in the apse: these include a stag chased by dogs and a hunter with a horn.
Some of the animals have human-like features, and the motifs have been interpreted in different ways; they should therefore not be read as one definitive picture story. The apse is more like a series of small scenes, each of which invites a closer look. Inside the church, the granite altar table is supported by four columns. The mensa contains a saint’s tomb, which had room for a reliquary. The baptismal font’s reliefs continue the stone carving in the church interior. The Romanesque carved stones make granite both a building material and a picture surface, while the altar table shows the stone in another role as religious furnishings.
The area around the church offers views over Vejlerne. Its high, open position also opens out onto the landscape between the Limfjord and the North Sea. Sankt Bodils Kilde lies east of the church. The connection between the spring’s name and Saint Botulf is only a conjecture, and it is unknown whether the spring was a place of pilgrimage. Here, visible details in the stones meet a local history in which some questions remain unanswered.
At Tømmerby Cemetery stands the gravestone of Eva Christensen, who worked as a photographer and died in 1906 at the age of 21. The unusual memorial is her porcelain portrait on the stone.
An account of a guided tour in 1998 describes the portrait as fired onto a tile—a remarkable link between the photographer’s profession and her gravestone.
